Environmental Compliance Assistance Programme for SMEsSmall, Clean and Competitive

Making the production, use and disposal of products more environmentally friendly is a focus of EU policies.
SMEs have to comply with, and can benefit from opportunities present in, several pieces of legislation and initiatives that exist in a number of areas:

• Public authorities leading the way - green public procurement
• Consumers' choice – Ecolabelling
• Making products greener throughout their life cycle – integrated product policy, eco-design and energy use

Public authorities leading the way - Green Public Procurement

Green Public Procurement means public purchasers, such as local authorities or hospitals, take into account environmental elements when buying products, services or works. Innovative and eco-efficient SMEs can take advantage of the possibilities offered by green public procurement.

European Commission:

• DG Environment’s Green public procurement pages
• Guidelines and a handbook in all MS languages have been published to help both public authorities and private companies to better understand the rules and the opportunities related to environment-friendly public purchases.
• National Action Plans on Green Public Procurement

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Consumers' choice – Ecolabelling

The EU Ecolabel is a voluntary scheme designed to encourage businesses to market products and services that are more environmentally friendly. It enables consumers to easily identify greener products by a universal label – a flower.

The new Regulation on the EU Ecolabel contains specific measures to encourage small and medium sized enterprises to take part in the scheme, e.g. reduced fees (with special fees for micro enterprises), consultation procedures open to SMEs, testing and verification requirements adapted to SMEs' capabilities. 

European Commission:

• DG Environment’s EU Ecolabel pages
• Contact your National Competent Body

Other useful links (external):

• Check the EU Ecolabel Green Store

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Making products greener throughout their life cycle – integrated product policy, eco design and energy use

The EU’s Integrated Product Policy (IPP) is an initiative that seeks to minimise negative environmental impacts by looking at all phases of a products' life-cycle and taking action where it is most effective.

Projects cover individual phases of production from the extraction of natural resources, through to product design, manufacture, assembly, marketing, distribution, sale and use to their eventual disposal as waste. At the same time it also involves many different businesses such as designers, manufacturers, marketing and retailers, as well as consumers.

The EuP Directive (Directive 2005/32/EC on the eco-design of Energy-using Products) sets EU-wide rules on eco-design for products such as electrical and electronic devices or heating equipment, ensuring that disparities among national regulations do not become obstacles to intra-EU trade. The Directive does not introduce directly binding requirements for specific products, but does define conditions for setting environmentally relevant product characteristics and allows them to be improved quickly and efficiently.

The European Commission undertook a project to increase awareness of eco-design issues among SMEs. See the website for the EcoDesign Awareness Raising Campaign for Electrical and Electronics SMEs project.

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ETAP - Eco-innovation for a Sustainable Futur

Eco-friendly technologies are good for business, reduce pressure on the environment, and can create new jobs. The European Commission has an action plan to promote greener technologies by supporting research, mobilising funding and improving market conditions.

European Commission:

• DG Environment’s Integrated Product Policy pages
• IPP network in different member states.

EU legislation:

• EU eco-design of Energy-using Products Directive

Other useful links (external):

• EcoSMEs.net - a one-stop-shop to help small and medium-sized enterprises implement IPP. It provides information, tools and services in five languages for developing and marketing ‘green products’.
• The EcoDesign Awareness Raising Campaign for Electrical and Electronics SMEs project (an EU funded project)

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